AUSTIN, Texas—Barbara L. Davis, a College of Communication graduate and instructor at The University of Texas at Austin, will be the first holder of a $150,000 Susan M. and Steven R. Foy Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Communication.
The fellowship was awarded for Davis’ studies of how and when children develop the ability to produce complex speech sequences — words like hippopotamus, for example. She said she is interested in looking at very young children to see how early speech problems may be detected.
Davis has worked at UT Austin since 1992 and is an associate professor in the department of communication sciences and disorders.
“This fellowship will place the department of communication sciences and disorders at the forefront of its discipline by allowing Barbara to challenge traditional theories and continue with her innovative research,” said Ellen Wartella, dean of the College of Communication. “This is one example of how the College of Communication and its faculty are being rewarded for hard work and creative thinking and will set a precedent for success in 2001.”
Davis was graduated from UT Austin with an undergraduate degree in 1968, a master’s degree in 1970 and a doctorate in 1986.
She has written more than 50 articles and book chapters including a jointly written article for Science magazine — a weekly, peer-reviewed journal. Davis also has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health for the past nine years.
In 1994, Davis received the student-nominated Texas Excellence Teaching Award granted by the Ex-Students Association, and she was awarded the College of Communication Research Award in 1998.
